The Growing Pains Podcast
Growing a business and a family? Join host Alyson Caffrey as she interviews mompreneurs who have scaled businesses and juggled life at home. Having it all may seem like a pipedream, but we are making it happen every day. Tune in and fold time in that carpool line!
The Growing Pains Podcast
Playbook for Parenthood and Entrepreneurship with Amy Buchan Siegfried
Amy Buchan Siegfried joins us today to share her playbook for combining the worlds of parenthood and entrepreneurship. She offers a goldmine of strategies for integrating the demanding schedules of both her family and business life, showing that it's possible to succeed at both without losing our sanity—or our sense of humor. This episode is for every parent out there playing construction trucks with one hand and penning business plans with the other.
Amy, Co-Founder and CEO of Last Night's Game, is a TEDx speaker and third-generation entrepreneur. Despite a short-lived athletic career, her love for sports has been integral to her professional journey. With a background in marketing, partnerships, and public relations, she offers a global sports perspective. Whether engaging with the entrepreneurship community nationwide or teaching her toddler about sports and small talk, Amy's passion is unmistakable.
Topics covered in this episode:
- The story behind starting Last Night's Game.
- Challenges of balancing motherhood and running a business.
- Importance of being present in both family life and business.
- How entrepreneurial thinking can be applied to academia.
- The importance of grit in leadership, sports, parenting, and business.
- Finding balance and focusing on what really matters
CONNECT WITH AMY:
https://lastnightsgame.com/
https://www.instagram.com/lastnightsgame/
https://www.facebook.com/lastnightsgame
RESOURCES FROM ALYSON:
The Kid-Proof Business Checklist
https://alysoncaffrey.com/checklist
Maternity Leave Planning Guide
https://www.mastermaternityleave.com/guide
Are you juggling the challenges of running a business while raising your little ones? Do you crave more ease in balancing your professional ambitions with the demands of parenthood? Well, sit tight, you're in the right place and in good company. I'm your host, alison Caffrey, and I understand the growing pains that come with building a business while nurturing a growing household. As the founder of Master Maternity Leave and Operations Agency, I've walked the walk as an operator, strategic coach and fractional COO for growing companies to define, create and optimize the way they operate. And, like many of you, I'm also a proud mom of two very energetic boys. On Growing Pains, we save space for parents to share about the intricacies of running a business and raising a family. I'll be sitting down with fellow mompreneurs, and dads too, who are pursuing success in their businesses, all while being wildly present at home. They'll share vulnerably about challenges, give guidance and joke a little bit about bodily functions. Think of this as a soft spot to land when you feel like your ambitions are starting to become just a little overwhelming. I'm thrilled you're here with me and can't wait to share this exciting journey with you. Welcome to Growing Pains.
Speaker 1:Hi, and welcome back to the Growing Pains podcast. I'm your host, alison Caffrey, and I sit down with the amazing Amy. She is from Last Night's Game and, guys, this episode was full of laughs and super juicy. Amy is truly authentically her through and through and I super enjoyed having her on the show. We talked about a whole bunch of stuff. We talked about dealing with school moms. We talked about her startup with her brother talking through sports. We talked about women leaders and how important it is to see women leaders in sports and just all of the things that she went through to build her portfolio actually now of companies and still be really present and wildly excited to play with her five and a half year old son.
Speaker 1:I cannot wait for you guys to be inspired and encouraged by this mom. I'll see you inside, amy. Thank you so much for joining me on Growing Pains. How's it going? It's great, I'm happy to be here with you. Likewise, we were just I've got like those little pains back here from laughing a little bit too hard before we pressed record talking about some really crazy moments in motherhood and business ownership. But let's give the listeners a little bit of a background. Tell us a little bit about the business that you run and the family that you have at home.
Speaker 2:Well, I am the co-founder and CEO of a company called Last Night's Game, and we cover sports for people who don't know a lot about sports but need to engage in them, to make connections, and we have a podcast as well as a weekly newsletter that goes out. I'm also I can dive into that in a little bit, of course but also the chair of Irish Angels, which is one of the largest angel investing groups in the country, as well as an adjunct professor in marketing.
Speaker 2:Wow, and then I have a five-year-old son at home. We were laughing about things that five-year-olds, four-year-olds three-year-olds do.
Speaker 1:That is so. So from an outsider right, it seems like so much. So how'd you build to that, like what came in sequence, and how did you kind of begin?
Speaker 2:Did your son come first or did your business ownership come first? My business came first, so this is the second business I've started in my career and then, when my son came along, it's it's amazing, and those who are listening obviously will know that when your child is born, you're like what did I do with all of that time I had to have a child? So it's amazing the the motivation that they give you, but the hustle you really have to put on because there's so many other demands on your time as well.
Speaker 1:I totally say that like multiple times a week. I mean, my kids are young as well, and so I always look at my husband. I'm like what were we doing in our twenties? Like, honestly, what were we doing?
Speaker 2:Yes, and we have friends who will. I have friends who read a book a week. I have friends who watch all these shows and I looked at my husband one day and I'm like what, what are we either doing right or wrong? I'm not sure what answer it is, but we cannot seem to watch a TV show or series. I can't finish a book, Like what, what am I doing right or wrong? That everyone else is doing this and I cannot. I cannot engage in the TV conversation, minus what I read in a magazine.
Speaker 1:We also struggle. I'm usually asleep on the couch within 15 minutes of pretty much watching anything. As soon as I sit down which is like very rare, unless I'm sitting here working and talking most of my meetings I do standing but as soon as I get to the couch I'm like it was over. Yeah, it's over. So building businesses, growing families what was that like? Early time Like? I mean, you have a business that is basically your baby right and you are doing all the things to grow it and build it and learn the hard lessons and manage a team and lead a team, and then a baby comes along and so you feel like now you have this restrict on your time. What was that? What was that time Like?
Speaker 2:it was a learning curve. I'll be, I'll be honest, and it was really interesting when I had told I was in a leadership program and I told one of the guys that I was close to said, hey, you know I'm pregnant, and he was like, so how are you going to raise two babies at the same time, you know, how are you going to have a child and raise your, raise your business? And, to be honest, I was kind of offended by that and I just said I don't know, but I'm going to figure it out because that's what I've done my whole life. We've lived, you know, out of the country, lots of other things. Life has shifted so much as for it has for so many people. We just figure it out, and so it was. It was a learning curve. I really didn't take any maternity leave and so you know, I just remember, you know, sitting up in the morning approving content while pumping, and my husband's like this is this is a look that you have going on here. You know the whole setup and so I don't know you just, I think you just figure it out.
Speaker 2:I would say that what I've really strived to do and I struggle with it often is to be present do and I struggle with it often is to be present.
Speaker 2:So much of what we do. You know, sports is not something that I can set and it just happens right. I can plan three weeks in advance, Like I know the Superbowl is coming up, but a story is going to come up and break or something like that. So having to be paying attention to what's going on on a constant basis provides its own challenges, and so we've worked on a pretty good system where, you know, I, my, I work with my mainly my brother. My co-founder is my brother and he's in Pacific time, so it actually works out that between the two of us one of us is usually awake, and so we've sort of just figured out the system and we've figured out the structure and I've really tried myself to put structure in place so I can be productive on a daily basis without totally sacrificing my family, and my husband travels a lot for work, so really I am the primary solo parent for a significant part of the year.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's challenging. Who else do you have in your corner?
Speaker 2:My in-laws live here, which is nice, okay, and that's a huge help, right, just even for the. When I got a flat tire the other day and realized that my car does not come with a spare tire, I needed a you know what person to call and say like, uh, help, help me, figure this out. I'm stranded in a dark park after t-ball practice and I don't really know what else to do. I can walk to a friend's it's not far and we'll figure it out but it's really not much nicer to be able to pick up the phone and call someone, and that's a huge, that's a huge help.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. How has your presence and your development of presence like really been a forethought for you in this stage of motherhood and business growth? I mean, I'd imagine that you probably lead a team. I'd imagine that you probably lead a team. Maybe I won't assume. Do you lead a team?
Speaker 2:I do in different facets.
Speaker 1:yes, Okay, so for the sports business that needs coverage. I mean, like all the time, is that something that you now have a team that you lead who does a lot of that stuff, or is that still you and your brother kind of really taking the brunt of a lot of it?
Speaker 2:It's really Scott and I really taking the brunt of it because most things run through us and so he really is the sports guru. If I'm being honest, I know what I know about sports because of him, and so it's a process right Like last year we went on a trip the three of us my son, my husband and I and I really strive to get everything set up ahead of time. I worked with our team, we had a team of the two of us and then the team of interns, which were phenomenal, and I worked with them to get everything we could set up ahead of time. Like I know I'm going to drop in here, I'll know I'll drop in here. Like I know I can't be totally zoned out, but at least I could take the time I needed and it's it's really funny. So I just not to promote a product, but I just got an aura ring and it talks about, like it shows you when you're about restorative and I spend most of my day in the stressed category, but it's really interesting when my son, who had we wanted to.
Speaker 2:We had a movie night the other night and I sat on the couch and watched, you know, movie, nothing crazy, but it went to restorative, and the next time we just he wanted to watch Sesame Street I was like, okay, we'll just sit here for 20 minutes. It's been a long day for you too, let's just chill out out and it went down to restorative, and so it's really interesting to look at that. To me, just to snuggle up on the couch with him is that it's resetting my sanity too, and so it's paying attention to those kinds of things, I think, knowing that you are being rewarded in more ways than one, and also rewarding them with the presence of your time and I don't mean that to sound like you know that you're the queen of England or anything but the presence of your time and really having that time together. Because I do realize that it makes a huge difference to be present, and as a mom especially, it's hard, right. You come home and you have to make dinner, you have to pack lunches, you have to make sure the laundry is done.
Speaker 2:You know who dumped their shoes all over the floor? We got to clean that up, like all the things, right, and so it's so hard to be present, and it's like that for me, where it's like I'm not a great player, Like I'm not going to go down and play trucks, like I'm just it's not my, I'm not really good at that, but I make myself do that just for a couple of minutes and it makes such a huge difference in his vibe and my vibe and it makes us all work so much better together.
Speaker 1:I want to double click on the player thing because I find myself in moods to get down and play with my boys, who are four and two, and then I also find times where I'm like trying to figure out like what my excited piece of play is that also excites them.
Speaker 1:So dance has been super big for us recently. We do lots of like shake it out and we have like a jock jams playlist that we play like after I'm done with my work and we'll just like jump around and let the lead out and it's so much fun. But I want to know how you approach not being a player and just kind of going for it, because I know so many moms like personally I'm not a crafter, do not like crafts, do not like the mess. I think it's way more work than it's worth and there was a time where, when I was first initially kind of struggling with that, I was like, well, my kids need to craft and that makes me a bad mom if I'm not offering it to them. So do you have any of that sort of thing creeping?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh all the time. I mean I am the epitome of a Pinterest fail. My son wanted an Octonaut birthday cake and he said I want it to look like this and I actually posted it on my Instagram because it was like this is so awful, it is horrific. And I'm like I'm looking at Pinterest and I'm like, well, they put licorice in and we've got this. It looked like the Octonaut ship whatever it's called got run over by a steamroller. It was so bad.
Speaker 2:And you know, I look at it and go and I tell I tell him all the time you know, like people are like Legos. If all your Legos were shaped the same way or the same color, you would never be able to build anything cool. So I think that's really cool that so-and-so's mom is great at baking. I think it's really awesome that you know your your grandma is great at this and your other grandma's great at this. Like, look at all your grandparents, they're all great at different things, and so I try to remember that there is a reason we all have our talents and there's a reason we do what we do and try not to take it personally. But I'm with you, like, I think there's that you must, you must do this insert thing here that we get as moms, that we feel like we have to do this and if not we're failing. You know, our son just got a bike with training wheels and he's five. The other day I saw a little boy out riding a bike and he was probably three and I'm like, well, there was a mom fail, Like my kid's, five, riding with training wheels, and terrified. And so give yourself some slack, like it is what it is. As someone reminded me once, your child is not going to go to college, not potty trained. You're going to figure it out, and so I try to give myself that grace. But let's be honest, the mom guilt is real.
Speaker 2:And going back to like, how do I engage in play? I try to find the things that I know that I can do. So if we're playing cars, I'm like, okay, this car is going to go on an adventure, like I kind of in my head, know that I can go around that route. But for me to build with him he wants me to build something I'm like, could you describe what you would like me to build? And it's all wrong, and then it's going to fall down and all these things I'm like okay, I'll be the one over here who drives the construction trucks versus builds. You're the really good builder, let me drive the trucks. So I try to find my way to fit into whatever he's engaged in the best way I can, knowing where I'm going to be successful and where I can make an impact in the you know, really the 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes that I may have to be able to do that. I want to be present and do the best I can to partake with him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my husband is the builder, so he's the Lego guy. He follows the pictures and does the things. I mean you should see the monstrosities I attempt to create with Legos. I've just totally tapped out it's. It's way too bad. I can't follow directions for the life of me.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because Legos, at least, is a one by one step. We got these sort of knockoff Legos the other day and I was like, oh wow, this is a lot, even for mom's brain.
Speaker 2:Okay, we're going to sit and we'll figure it out, though we're going to do it together. You know, and that's we figured out that system too, where you know we build for about 20, 25 minutes and then everybody has to get up and run a lap around the house, sit back. I sit back down because I get antsy, he gets antsy. So it's like okay, great, we've built, we're in a good spot, let's do two laps and come back. You know we high five on our laps and those kinds of things. But it's how do we, you know, it's how do we make it work for both of us really?
Speaker 1:That's so cool. I appreciate the like really high play factor at home because we're totally in the thick of that I want to ask I experienced you, amy, as like a coach mom, like it's very apparent, like the sports vernacular, the approaches, they wouldn't fit together and build something great, like that's incredible, and so I really want to double click on the sports side of things. So why sports? Why did you and your brother decide to start a business centered around sports?
Speaker 2:Well, it actually goes back, so it goes back to college. So I didn't know what I wanted to do and I was in a PRSSA meeting, which is the Public Relations Student Society of America meeting. I went to Arizona State and the folks from the Diamondbacks came in to talk about public relations and the PR guy brought who would be my future boss, the community relations person which they do community outreach, foundation work, raise money for great causes, player programming and I thought, oh my God, that's what I want to do. And I thought, oh my God, that's what I want to do. And so fast forward through an internship and working my way through the system.
Speaker 2:I was at a game with one of my girlfriends and she said, hey, what are the guys doing? Why are they running off the field? And I said, well, they have three outs. And she said, what's an out? And I realized that she worked in manufacturing like she really needed to be armed with understanding, just simplicity, right, the basics that she needed to know the Superbowl was happening. Whatever that might be, it doesn't have to be. This is what a full count means. It doesn't have to mean we don't have to talk about ERAs if we're talking baseball, because conversation doesn't flow like that.
Speaker 2:So I called my brother and said, hey, I've got this idea. I'd love to share the world of sports in a really simple, like pop culture, easy to understand way. And he was like, oh, this is, this is great, amy, you work 80 hours a week. And he was still in high school and he was like, uh, we can't do that. So, um, he's my realist, really fast forward to. Uh, my husband and I were moving back to the States from Singapore and it was right around Thanksgiving and no one was hiring, and so I sort of had this Thanksgiving. I said to my brother, what do you think if we just start this thing, we can. We have probably a month and a half before I'm going to be able to find any, any work, just because of the holidays. So let's, let's try it and see what happens. Work just because of the holidays? So let's, let's try it and see what happens.
Speaker 2:And we started off with an email that went out with a link via our Gmails, and it grew from there. And it's fun because it was interesting to see what people resonated with. And you know, there's there's lean startup says if your product is perfect, you've rolled it out too late. I mean that was ugly when it came out. I mean it was clunky, it was too long.
Speaker 2:And we've really refined our path and how we cover things, where we very much believe in short and sweet, and so our emails that go out once a week are about a minute and a half read, our Monday and Friday podcasts are five minutes or less and our Wednesday podcasts are about 20 minutes, and so we believe in short and sweet, we believe in bridging the conversation and bringing it to you where you are, and what I really love about sports is that this ultimate conversation starter.
Speaker 2:Right, it's not something that's you know for the most part, not something controversial. Right, we're up against the wall and so many things are controversial and challenging to talk about nowadays that talking about a football team or talking about baseball or something like that is so, so easy to then bridge into a conversation. But then bridge into a conversation of something else you want to talk about, right, I always use the analogy that if we were talking about baseball and we were talking about the Chicago Cubs and you love the Cubs I'd say that's really cool. Like, where do you like to go before games? What do you love about Chicago? Have you lived there a long time? Where do you like to eat? What do you like to do? Right, it can turn it into this multitude of conversations which I think flows very naturally for you to be able to pull out what you want to take out of it and make that connection with someone, and it doesn't have to be all sports.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that and, to be even like, totally truthful, behind the scenes, in our home my husband and I were not big into sports Like I played sports growing up. He really didn't. He was kind of back and forth between several different types of activities but never really landed on like a sport in high school. And we've actually said multiple times that the universal thread with males particularly is sports. They can just shoot the breeze about last night's game, like your company's name, and then it just feels like this universal, diffuser and immediate conversation starter, and we've actually made comments that call it resentful. It's not that negative, but we're almost like dang it. They have that but we don't have anything. So we just have to be like hell's the weather down there and we feel like we're 80. And so I love what you've brought to the table because it does make it so much more accessible. So is your audience and the folks who are watching, listening, consuming your content. Are they mostly females? They are mostly female.
Speaker 2:We do have about 25% of our followers are male and they are other people just like you said that I have.
Speaker 2:We have a guy who wants to, who texts me and said hey, I read every time before. I make sure to read every time I go to the barbershop because I don't watch sports and that's all everybody talks about in the barbershop. So I want to be able to, just to have enough that I can chime in here or there and know what's going on, and so I do think there's a really interesting facet of that, and the majority of our followers are women. But we do have men who don't pay attention to sports or don't have time to pay attention to sports and what's really fun. You know, let's say, football season, people are really in the NFL, but there's also so many other sports going on, and so to tune in what else is happening in other parts of the country if you're in sales or something, to know what's happening in New York or Chicago or something like that, and then you're paying attention to the this is the height to the highlights, really the highlight reel of what's happening in sports.
Speaker 1:Oh, how did this grow from you and your brother to then you know you guys leading a team and then multiple entrepreneurial ventures. So did you kind of get the bug after this first company and you're like this is it, I'm going to go and start doing some other stuff on my own.
Speaker 2:Well, I started an event planning company earlier in my career. I got laid off and so I had a bunch of people who said I would love to hire you, but I can't afford you. And I'm like, oh well, here's a chance to do all these things. And so I started an event planning company, which I really, really appreciated, and I would still be doing it if I wanted to work on weekends right, I love event planning, but I'd like to see my family and so my dad.
Speaker 2:I'm a third generation entrepreneur, so I've really watched my grandfather and my dad build businesses small businesses and so it's been fun to see that. And the hard work that goes into the small business never scared me, because I watched how that happened. I knew what to expect me because I watched how that, how that happened, I knew what to expect. And so I would say, once you get into the headspace of being able to be creative and being able to develop your own business and really think outside the box, right, there's lots of things we've tried and have failed, and that's okay and we're like, well we're, we're small enough, right, we're not Nissan, we're not craft Like we can pull back whatever we've done and fix it, change it, don't do anything with it, whatever that might be. And so I find that like it's really hard for me. It would be really hard for me to go back into a very set situation, because I do find myself thinking why is this like this? How do I fix this? How do I make this better?
Speaker 2:And so it's really interesting to roll into academia, which is very structured, and so I actually had a professor approach me today and said are you teaching? You know marketing 303? And I'm like yeah, yeah. He's like, okay, me too. How are your? My students are failing their tests. How are your students? How are you getting them by?
Speaker 2:I'm like, well, my students don't take tests. I don't believe that testing marketing theory is going to teach them anything. They're executed in papers, they executed in presentations, because I believe present presenting is a skill everyone should have. And so you know, the couple of students chimed in like I don't think I would pass this class if it was theory and tests and things like that, like I don't test well or I love executing this and putting it into action. And so it's kind of funny where I said to my husband I never thought of myself being innovative, I just said, hey, do I have to give tests? And they said no and I went, okay, good enough, and so you do. You look at everything with a different lens once you get that entrepreneurial hat on.
Speaker 1:So true, and I think it applies to almost everything, right? So I love that you've brought it into academia, and I'm sure it changes the way that you solve problems with your son too. I mean, have you, have you felt that that has been true in some of the ways that you lead and parent him?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, I'm a. I'm a big believer as a human, as a leader, that I need to be authentic, that I need to be genuine. And there are times where I'm like sorry, buddy, I screwed up. Or there was one day we had a real bad morning where I was like if you don't get your clothes on, you're going to go to school in your underwear, without your toothbrush, and I'm just really not here for it. Like I just can't take it anymore. And when we got in the car, everyone got dressed, everyone survived, all those things.
Speaker 2:You know, mornings are challenging. And I said to him hey, buddy, I need you to know I've never done this before, I've never been a parent before, You've never been a child before, You've never been, you know, five years, 30 days, or whatever. We have to help each other out. Like I don't know what I'm doing, you don't really know what you're doing. We're all doing our best. And so I mean I'm just going to level set with you. Like I'm just going to level set with you, Like I'm going to be honest with you. I don't really know what I'm doing. My job is to raise you to be a good human, teach you something along the way and keep you alive, and so if that's what happens, that's my goal, I'm not your boss, all those things and so I really do try to keep how I lead in the office, in the workplace, and translate that to him. And you know, I joke he's probably going to go to therapy for something right, that's, that's, that's the way.
Speaker 2:I guarantee, if I can be transparent with him and at least attempt to shield him from obviously not being transparent with everything, but be honest with him that there are struggles that go through and I hope that he sees that as hard as his dad and I work that we still love him and that we face the challenges together and we face them honestly and know that we are always a sort of source of honest answers, and so that's kind of how I attempt to lead my life, but once again it's. It's not perfect. I'm still getting fights to get in the car and you're going to go to school in your underwear, like that happens sometimes.
Speaker 1:That's a funny and interesting visual of a family rushing out, and one of the one of the members is still in their underwear.
Speaker 2:Kicking and screaming. You're like well, I can't help you. If you're going to kick and scream, I give up. So I'm out.
Speaker 1:It's so interesting. I think, like for me I know you said presence was one of the number one things that you're really focused on building, and for me it's patience, and I think presence and patience are very adjacent to one another. But patience, for me, I remember there was a super confronting time where I was trying to get the kids in the car and it took us a really, really long time and I was like completely shattered my whole identity. I was like how am I supposed to advise high growth companies if I can't even get my family in the car in under 20 minutes? And it just like shattered who I was.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because I find that those moments I've experienced it with you, amy like you don't really tie your like worth as a human being to the fact that you can't like make your son, you know, follow the routine for the morning, and so I'm assuming that that was probably some time that had elapsed there. But talk to me about that, because you do feel confident in your authenticity, in the sense that you know who you are, you know what you want. Do you struggle? And what do you do in the moments where you're like, ooh, I'm not really sure how I should handle this, or I'm not confident in what I should tell. My son went down here Talk to us about some of that, cause he's five, like he's. He's got some time to grow. My kiddos are tiny too, so when they start asking some, some questions, I'm going to be like I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know how to answer this. That's it. You know, I have a friend who has four kids and they're all a little bit older. They started thinking they're now 13, 14 ish as the oldest, and I'm like, how do you, how do you survive this? Like I can barely handle one and keep my head on straight how do you survive four? And I'm like, how do you answer these questions? Right? I'm like someone tell me how this is supposed to work. And she said what I started doing is asking them what they want to know. So if it's like where babies come from, you say, well, what do you want to know about that?
Speaker 1:And then so I try, try to ask him questions.
Speaker 2:So then I give an answer that's suitable for where he's curious Do they get dropped off by a bird? Well, do you think they get dropped off by a bird? No, you know, I've seen your scar. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's where you came from. Like it's that all you know.
Speaker 2:Like I try to ask the questions of him, of what he wants to know, because I think, as as adults, we go in such a deep spiral, right or like, oh my God, I have to talk to him about this now. And it's like no, no, there's a comedian who wants Jim Gaffigan, who I love. He does a whole skit about an antenna on his car and his dad's like what's that, daddy? And he's like it's a stick. He's like, no, no, what's that daddy? He's like, no, no, what's that daddy? He's like. And he goes through like the whole thing about antennas, right, and it goes back through this whole thing and then he finally, after like 15 rounds of what is that, what does it do, why does it do that? He's like it's a stick. It's a stick.
Speaker 2:We're moving on, like sometimes it's just like we do our asking you questions about well, so and so you know so and so hit me at school and we don't treat our friends that way. So how should I be friends with them? And you're like, oh wow, this is heavy. Well, you're five, so you probably do battle over things like that's. You're still learning your spatial awareness and your territory and so on and so forth and how to really handle your emotions, and so it's, it's still your friend, we don't. Yeah, we were right, we, our friends, don't hit us. And so next time, here's some steps to take or here's some things to think about. And if it continues on and you don't want to play with that person, then you don't have to play with that person. That doesn't make you comfortable, then go ahead and move on. But also here's some steps and here's some things you might think about what you could do differently in that scenario.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so interesting how becoming a parent really challenges the way that you handle your stuff right. Because the first question that I always pop into my brain whenever my older son, frank, typically will ask a question, I'll be like, well, what do I think of that? It's like the thing that comes up in my brain. And then if you have some unaddressed stuff, then all of a sudden you need to address it before you can literally give them an answer. And it's so confronting at times. So confronting, but often it's a great opportunity right To just kind of level set and work through and be like okay, well, if I was five or four or three, what would I think about this and what would I need to know? I love that you asked that question back. I think it's a really elegant way to kind of keep the conversation where it needs to be instead of where it could go.
Speaker 2:It's it's so hard. And I mean we have all these anxieties, right, I will tell you, the idea of school moms makes me really super anxious. Yeah, same, not a great. Schooling was not a great thing for me. I was bullied. It's a rough go. I joked. Before we had we had our son, I said to my husband like I might need therapy to get our child through middle.
Speaker 2:Just the thought of just getting out of my own head of like move on. Yes, if you know, when your son doesn't get invited to the carpool or over to someone's house, in your head you're like oh, I hope they're not counting them out. And then I'm like, okay, amy, remember he's five. Like let's, let's move on. But also, you know I would, for the first year, I think. Every time I talked to the principal or someone who holds open the door, I'm like did I say something dumb? Did you just say good morning? And I'm like top of the morning to you or something like that. It's the learning curve, it's practice, right, and there's, like you said, there's those anxieties that you have that feed into them. And so I was like I need to. Once you're aware of them, you're like okay, how do I keep this out of his head and just in here in my own.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, providing that filter for them, cause you don't want to imprint, right, all of your stuff onto a very malleable brain, right?
Speaker 2:And that's why I, like I said to my mom my mom is very much like I don't like to eat this, I don't like to eat that, and I'm like, please, I know those things Please do not relay those in front of him. I don't want him to be like, oh, mushrooms are gross, or like I can't eat anything anyways. So could we just keep all of your dislikes also out of the conversation. I need all the help.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we're in the throes of getting the kids to eat things that actually nourish them, legitimate nutritional. I always say that it's beige foods, right? Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Oh my goodness. Okay, amy, what is exciting for you. I mean, we're just in, you know, recording of this episode early Q2. What's exciting coming down the pike for the rest of this year and ahead, for your business and for your family.
Speaker 2:I'm really excited and I could go on for days about this. I, from a business side, am so excited to watch the growth of women's sports. I know we have moms on here whose girls play sports and I love to see that we are finally recognizing the talent, and kudos to Caitlin Clark for bringing that to our attention and showing up but showing how hard she works. I mean, that's one of those things. My son and I watched the WNBA draft and he says you know, we have different conversations and I said well, caitlin, do you think Caitlin Clark doesn't eat her vegetables? Let's see this video. They just showed how much she practices right. When you feel like you're not good at something, do you think she said I'm not good at that and I'm not going to do it anymore? She said no, I'm going to do it and I'm going to practice harder, and so it's fun for me to see him have a role model. That is another female and it's not just me, it's another female that's out there doing great things, because I think we're so apt to. You know, refer to men's sports figures as these phenomenons, but there are a lot of phenomenal women too and I love to see that people are recognizing that and I think that's that to me is like a chill invoking moment that I really look forward to seeing soar.
Speaker 2:Business-wise, otherwise, I'm working on a couple of things, hopefully maybe starting starting another business, because you know why not? Family-wise, we have a quiet summer. We have some family trips together, but nothing big, which I'm really looking forward to. The excitement of kids camps and a summer of pool and hopefully some some time together. Right Goes back to being present and as school goes away for me from a university perspective for the summer, it just allows me to take one more thing off my plate to feed into him, so and into my family. Right, my husband. We pull back our date nights and he travels a lot this summer for work, but you know we're really intentional about making sure we have that time together with the two of us, and so it's all those things where it allows you just to invest more.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. We do slow summers also. Last summer I took a whole month off and then this summer I'll plan to do the same. It's just so great and, honestly, it wasn't something that I had really planned to do.
Speaker 1:And then there was a time when I was doing like two weeks when Frank was first born my older son, because we share a really similar birth date and it's like that week I would take off for like his and my birthdays. And then, once our second son came, I was like, well, it's not fair that I would like take two weeks off for Frank's birthday and then not for Jack's birthday, so I might as well just take a month off in the summer where, like, we can just all be together for a month. And so I grew into this really cool, beautiful thing. So I planned my year in like 11 months versus like the 12, which at first it feels so overwhelming, but it actually, if you just make your plate smaller than like all the stuff, still finds a place to sit on it, right, and then you have your extra time. What will you do?
Speaker 2:Like, what do you do in your slow summers? Like, what's the thing that you you relish the most out of them? Besides, obviously, like time together but what is that a part of your slow summer that makes you just go? Oh, this is what I need.
Speaker 1:I love yard work, Like truly. Uh, I think that. So I don't know if you resonate with this, Amy, but like I'm super type a, I love getting stuff done, love checking things off the old to-do list, and so, like sitting down and reading a book I do read, but like I wouldn't go in and devour a book over like a four hour period of time. It's just too long for me to sit and so the ways that I empty my brain traditional like meditation method style is either for going for long runs or doing yard work. That's like the way it's repetitive tasks and things that I can just empty my brain. So last summer we actually did.
Speaker 1:We live in the woods a little bit and so, like we have a bunch of woods that you know fall in branches over the year. Once it freezes, then unthaws, and so we just go and clean up sticks and all we literally need to do is walk through the leaves and pick up the sticks and put them in the buckets. The kids love it, I love it, and it was like a two, three day ordeal, so we would just get up early. I love it, and it was like a two, three day ordeal, so we would just get up early, go. We ate our lunch outside, we ate snacks outside. It was like no agenda, we're just doing work and we're doing it together Like we were all. Everybody had a part and it felt really nice. It was better than both the big vacations that we took over the summer and that was one thing that we decided to do as a family last year and it was really fun.
Speaker 2:It's really cool and I think there's something to be said about manual labor. Like we all work in this space, right, where we've created content, we've answered 200 emails, whatever we've done in the day, but I feel like it's all. It's all happened here on this computer. It hasn't happened. You know, there's a reason. You clean out your closet and you feel better about all this. Something to be said about manual labor and saying look what we did, look what we did. This is really cool and it goes back to the building, legos and other things. Right, those are things you can visually see that we've done together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, I, um, I love it and I want to. I'd be remiss because this, this um question sits with me a lot, especially with raising kids right and like finding right, fit hires for your team, right? Is you talked a little bit about like recognizing women, leadership, and I think that sports, particularly, is a super interesting incubator for leadership because it really balances the two necessary things to become a great leader, which is raw talent and work, and I'm super interested to hear your thoughts on whether raw talent or work is the most important ingredient, or which ingredient is most important when it comes to being a great leader or being a phenomenal athlete or building a successful business or being a mom.
Speaker 2:It's a really good question. I would say and I look at this and this is actually one of the things we added into how we analyze businesses that come through that are pitching in Irish Angels is grit? I think grit really is. It kind of fits into all of those, right, but grit to me is something that showcases that you are resilient, that you're willing to work hard to overcome challenges, overcome lapse in talent that you may have. You're willing to work for that and I believe that that is, to me, is the biggest indicator of a great athlete, is the biggest indicator of a great leader, because I could name you 10 athletes who were phenomenally talented but didn't want to, didn't want to persevere when it came to an injury, didn't want to work hard. When someone told them they can't do it, they said, okay, well, I guess I can't. And so I look at that and I look at leaders who are willing to persevere.
Speaker 2:And I would say that's the same for parents. Right, our job as a parent is not on a straight line, right? It's like the song God Bless the Broken Road. You're like, ok, what's happening today? I just figured out how to parent and it's all gone downhill. Or it's school's out, it's a snow day so I had to go to you know, for stitches, and so I look at that, that grit and that resilience to me is such a key piece of that leadership and you learn from that. Grit to me implies such a key piece of that leadership and you learn from that. Grit to me implies that you have learned from where you failed, and so that's something that's really interesting when I look at from a parenting perspective is how do I let him fail? Right, it's really hard to let your kids fail, and it really stinks when they fall. It really stinks when they don't do. You know, whatever it might be, something doesn't work out Like I don't want, you know, it's as long as they're not getting harmed, obviously, but it's one of those that they, you, I, we all learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes, and Snoop Dogg has a affirmation song. I don't know if you've ever heard it, but it's great, because one of the lines is I learn from my mistakes. And so if you have a chance to listen to the Snoop Dogg affirmation song, sometimes it gets in our house in the morning and sometimes he's annoyed by it, but other days I'm like dude, we need this, we all need this. It was a rough morning. I learned from my mistakes and you know my family loves me and it's kind of it's a really well done. But who would have thought snoop dogg would be doing a child's affirmations? But, um, it's great because I love that they've learning those perspectives right.
Speaker 2:But it goes back to how do I teach him how to. You know, I don't say take care of himself, but you know there's a lot of things that I want him to be able to learn to handle himself. And it's that hard, fine line of we do Legos. And he'll say I need help. And I said, did you really try to do it yourself before you asked me for help? Cause you're very, you know, you're very apt to just ask me for help.
Speaker 2:And I'll say, oh, so what I've started doing is that I need help. So I'm doing something just to give me just a moment. I'll be there in just a moment and you keep trying at it and I'll come help you in just a moment and typically 30 seconds later he's like I got it. And so I sort of started to take that step and just give him the distance to figure it out. And you know, yeah. So to wrap it all up, and with a bow, I think grit is really the truly the facet and the biggest characteristic to a true phenomenal, leader, athlete, parent, all the things. And that's one skill that we, all parents, have, you know is we may not be able to Pinterest like the best of them, but we are gritty and resilient.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I mean, we'll do anything, right? A coach of mine says that there's a difference between making a decision and deciding. So making a decision is a moment in time and deciding happens with every single moment that you're presented with something. And he said you know, when I asked parents, like you know, will you decide that your kid's not going to go hungry or are you deciding that your kid is not going to go hungry? It's always the latter right. They're always deciding and you'll do anything next to anything to let your kid won't starve.
Speaker 1:And so, if we can apply that to the other things we're committed to, it's so brilliantly stated by, again, one of my coaches, but he's just so elegant in the way he says that, and I'm like, yeah, if we just shrunk our focus on the things that really mattered, then we could access that gritty feeling of I'll do anything. I'll do anything to make sure my kid doesn't starve, I'll do anything to make sure my business doesn't go under, right, and I think it's so important to have that focal point though. Yeah, I think it's a great point. Yeah, this was awesome, and I have to say that I think an Encore episode will probably be on my brain until we get you back on the show.
Speaker 2:It's so fun and I really appreciate that you introduce a very honest, authentic conversation. Because I find you know parents approach me. My friends who are having kids, right when they were getting ready to have babies, are like can you guys sit down with us and talk to us about what it means to be a parent, what does having a baby look like? Because you're going to give me the real answer. Because when you don't get the real answer, you sort of feel like you're crazy, right, You're doing it wrong. So I appreciate that you are providing a platform for open, honest, authentic conversation around business and parenthood and trying to make that all work and stay sane and maybe save a gray hair or two at the same time.
Speaker 1:A gray hair or two, a failed business, decrease a child therapy bill? We'll take all the wins we can get Exactly all the wins we can get, amy. When folks undoubtedly want to check out all the things that you've got going on with Last Night's Game and follow along with all the things that you've got happening over there, where can folks get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:We are lastnightsgamecom and then we're on all the social media platforms at Last Night's Game. We are very active on Instagram, so if you want to find out the great things that we do, that is a really good place to find us in our best light.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Well, I will link all of that for our listeners and thank you so much for joining, for providing the lighthearted and the realness around being a business owner and growing and raising a family. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much, allison. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Growing Pains. I know that you have so many things vying for your attention right now, so I am so grateful that you just spent the last hour or so with me. So I am so grateful that you just spent the last hour or so with me.
Speaker 1:So I hear all the time from mompreneurs Allie, allie. What systems do I need to have in place in order to thrive in business and in parenthood? If you go over to alisoncaffreycom slash checklist, you can grab my kid proof business checklist and it will get you started in the right direction around making sure that you build a business that doesn't steal all of the time away from your family. If you loved today's episode, I would be so, so, so honored if you would leave a review on the podcast. It helps us reach even more incredible mompreneurs just like you and give them the resources they need to be wildly successful in business and wildly present at home with their families. Thanks so much again and I'll see you next time.